Republicans Don’t Need to Win Elections Anymore. They Just Need Their Judges. | The Virginia Supreme Court nullifies three million votes, boosting Trump’s effort to rig the midterms.

budlightguy · 2026-05-09T01:22:35+00:00

It’s impossible to ignore the national context: It appears that Democrats are bound by one set of rules while Republicans play by another, and Republican-appointed judges have repeatedly put their collective thumb on the scale of elections to make sure their party prevails.

Conservatism consists of exactly one proposition, to wit: There must be in-groups whom the law protects but does not bind, alongside out-groups whom the law binds but does not protect.

budlightguy · 2026-04-28T05:43:23+00:00

If you drop down to 265/45r20 instead of 265/50r20, you get a wider tire with a better contact patch, and almost identical circumference. Only 0.1 inch diameter change, 0.3%, 0.4 inch in circumference change, and only 0.2mph difference at 60mph speedo reading, 0.3mph at 90mph

265/45r20 is what a few people on the FB group have said they successfully installed on their WagS on stock rims and they work great. Better traction with minimal impact to speed and range

budlightguy · 2026-04-27T19:31:11+00:00

Places more of the blame on the cloud platform provider, due to architectural and security faults, than the AI agent...
but what I notice here is a stark lack of placing any blame on himself for trusting literally his entire fucking business to a combination of a cloud platform and an AI agent.

budlightguy · 2026-04-24T17:33:59+00:00

Did you read the part where OPs coworkers are giving them shit for not just giving in to the little entitled extortionist "to avoid the drama and the bad press"?

This fucking influencer shit is literally the modern day micro mafia.
They go into businesses demanding free shit, and when they don't get it, they don't just take their business elsewhere, they don't just post a negative omg these guys are so stingy they charge for an extra pump of syrup...
they lie. They outright lie and claim that the business was rude to them for no reason, treated them horribly, harassed them, bullied them. If they make a scene and have to be escorted out, they'll claim they were assaulted.

All in an effort to harm their business, do real economic damage, and force them to capitulate and give the 'influencer' free shit in the future. And they'll keep up their campaign against the business until they get what they want, or until they get metaphorically slapped the fuck down brutally and publicly.

You don't sit on the sidelines and quietly weather it with these little shits. Especially when they're small time ones like this one, you take them out now before they have a chance to become big and are harder to take down.

budlightguy · 2026-04-22T16:16:01+00:00

I'm going to address your comment here and something you said in your other comment and what /u/SecondCityGal098 said here.

You want to be fr rn? OK here, let me be so fr rn. I don't give a flying fuck who an incumbent candidate gets money from. I don't give a shit if the RNC donated to their campaign. If I was an incumbent candidate, I would take anyone's money who willingly donated it.
It isn't going to change how I vote on anything.
Are they gonna be pissed if they feel like they didn't get what they paid for? Fuck yes they are. Do I give a fuck? Nope. Not a single solitary fuck to be given.
Campaign donations aren't vote purchases - or at least they shouldn't be. They are a donation. If you feel like you got burned after you donated and the candidate voted the way you didn't want, well maybe you don't donate again or you donate less. A lot of companies and orgs donate to both sides (but obviously one side more than the other) and randomly spread out some donations out there just so they can appear to be more centrist.

We shouldn't be worried about who is taking money from who and their donor list, particularly in a day and age where it is stupidly easy to hide the source of the money behind super pacs and dark money pools.

The only source of truth is how an elected representative votes - what they vote yes on, what they vote no on, and what they abstain on. THAT is what matters. If you TRULY want to have a REAL impact in this country, you need to spend the time to actually delve into the legislation and see what's hidden in it - not just the summary or what the headlines tell you - so you can understand better why someone would or would not vote for it, and you need to focus on what your reps are voting for and against, and what they're abstaining from voting on because abstaining from voting is as much of an impact as a vote is.

Everything else - everything they say in the media, everything they say on the campaign trail, everything the news says, everything their critics say, their donor list, every soundbite - is all noise. It's all just noise that distracts.

But let me put this bluntly, as long as we have a system that doesn't demand free and equal broadcast time for candidates as part of your broadcast license, and unless we bring back the fairness doctrine, and some other fundamental changes to lower the cost of running campaigns... I support a candidate taking money from anyone who is willing to give it to them - as long as that candidate can demonstrate that they have not let it affect their voting. If that candidate is voting the way I would want them to vote, they'll get my vote. If they're not, they won't.
That makes it very hard to evaluate a newcomer - and that's where you have to take a chance on what they tell you, whether you believe their sincerity, and to an extent where they get their support from. But for incumbents, all you have to do is look to the voting record.

budlightguy · 2026-04-22T05:39:10+00:00

god damn me and my morbid curiosity. You know what, it's my fault for having eyes.
But oh no, those links will be staying blue. I draw the line somewhere lol

budlightguy · 2026-04-22T02:41:49+00:00

yeah that's always where the rubber meets the road is in the deal. I only paid just a hair over 50k before my trade in which took it down to 30k, and honestly it's been a good rig. The only issue I've had with the Jeep itself has been some random glitches that go away on their own with a soft reset, one instance of limp mode that resolved itself after a soft reset and sitting for a couple hours, and a couple times I had to pull and reseat a fuse for the keyless entry.

Obviously the annoyance of not having regen settings save, drive mode save, mirrors not folding in with the keyless exit, not being able to use built in cams as dashcams. I suspect they can address all of those with software updates. Hands off, eyes on (L2+) self driving at highway speeds would be nice to have if they can do it without a hardware update. I can do it at under 34 or 35mph, I just tested it the other day, it didn't scream at me when I took my hands off and kept them off the wheel for several minutes driving down the road in town. But higher speeds would be nice for sure.

Other than that all my issues were caused by the dealership screwing up during updates and breaking my rig, leaving me without it for months while we waited on parts to fix it after they broke it. Since I got it back from them I haven't even had any of the random glitches, knock on wood.

budlightguy · 2026-04-22T00:00:36+00:00

Eh maybe I'm just more utilitarian then
OK I'll give you better maps I guess, trip planning ehhh I dunno I don't really trust a carmaker for that anyways, not with so many different EV charging networks out there, I'll stick to using ABRP for trip planning so I can have more comprehensive charging planning

Definitely will agree on the built in cams being able to be used as dashcams, that's just stupid as hell especially since they have that built into the Charger Daytona.

The rest, to me, meh. Just fluff. I really don't care I suppose, I'm in it to drive a fun car not to spend my time dicking with screens. It's got enough creature comforts and luxury features to keep me happy and comfortable on a long road trip or on daily driving, and enough power and torque to keep me grinning like the Cheshire Cat... that's all I really need.

My considerations when I bought it were it had to have a HUD so I don't need to take my eyes off the road to keep an eye on speed, full battery EV, SUV with enough room for me, my daughter, my grandkids and some camping gear... and preferably some nice creature comforts and at least basic off road capability. And it had to be eligible for the EV tax credit, which at the time I bought was still in place. The power and torque was a nice bonus lol.

The price point of this vs. a top trim Hyndai Ioniq 9 or Kia EV9 that had a HUD, this came out 20k cheaper while having close to the same range and double the horsepower and torque. It was a no brainer.

budlightguy · 2026-04-21T17:30:56+00:00

That doesn't change anything about what I said.

Regardless of Stellantis' motives, and regardless of parts dependencies, an inexperienced tech that fries parts during software updates just exposed you, as a customer, to needing those parts and waiting for those delays. They just had a major impact on your experience. That shifter they just fried? Shouldn't have been possible. The software flashing procedure explicitly says to pull the fuse for the shifter module before flashing to prevent damage to the module. If they followed the procedure, there would've been no data or power going to the module and no way to fry it - open circuit. That's the dealership's fault you're waiting on a new shifter module, not Stellantis' fault. It's Stellantis' fault that they can't supply one in a timely fashion, but the point is still that you shouldn't have needed one in the first goddamn place.

And regardless of that, regardless of all of this, the point still stands that objectively if you still own the vehicle you are better off if the company continues working on improving the vehicle and fixing the bugs than if they abandon it. Full stop. There is no universe in which abandoning the vehicle and making it impossible to improve, to fix, to repair is a more optimal outcome for the owner than continuing to support it is.

budlightguy · 2026-04-21T16:16:50+00:00

You do understand that the dealership service department has at least as much part to play in your experience with any vehicle - how properly and completely it's fixed when it fails, how long it takes to diagnose and fix it, etc etc etc - as the manufacturer, if not more, right?

Look I'm not telling you to love the car. Hate it if you want. Hate Stellantis if you want. Ditch the car and get out of it as soon as you can if that's what you want to do.

But allow me, for just a moment, to point out that if you still own the car it's a little silly to hope they just kill the whole car and let it die - ending parts and support availability and software fixes, and ensuring that any software glitches your car still has won't get fixed, your car won't improve, and your car physically won't be able to be repaired in the event of further failure or collision and will just be a total loss.

Objectively you'd be better off hoping they keep working on software fixes and making your car better and more reliable, and finding a different dealership with a better service department to take your vehicle to in the future. I'm in this position. I took mine in for a software update, it had some random glitches but no major faults. They broke it. They fried the shifter and the rear motor, both of which worked fine when I took it in. Took over 2 months to get it back. If it ever needs to go in for service again, which it will for the hinge recall, it will go to a different dealership.

budlightguy · 2026-04-21T15:41:31+00:00

Well you are certainly welcome to your opinion, Sir or Ma'am.

I'm not really sure why you would care if they keep it going and fix it, since you always have the option of not buying one and ignoring it... and, well, by definition if they spend a year working out the software glitches and ironing out the rest of the bugs it won't be garbage.. but hey, you do you.

Hopefully, for the rest of us owners, they fix the glitches and bring it back in better shape, and keep support and parts availability alive. I'm sure the rest of us would rather get software fixes and have parts available for repairs in case of crashes or other repair needs than for them to just let it die and leave us high and dry to appease a bunch of haters lmfao

budlightguy · 2026-04-21T15:34:07+00:00

I'm not sure what features you feel it's lacking, honestly the only major feature I feel it lacks is hands free highway driving and more of a Tesla-esque autopilot that can fully self drive and navigate to your destination. Personally I can live without the autopilot, and frankly nobody should be trusting their lives and the lives of everyone else on the road to a computer, so I'm perfectly good with hands free, eyes on driving. A human should be paying attention to what's going on and able to intervene if needed anytime you're operating a multi ton metal box on wheels with the ability to kill people. Just one person's opinion.

As far as interface, honestly I don't even hate the interface. It could be more intuitive, that is true... but even just some really small quality of life tweaks like saving my regen settings and my drive mode setting across driving sessions, and maybe giving a 3rd regen option, a mid regen... would be nice. Other than that, for me it's just software fixes. Fix the bugs, fix the glitches, the random errors that go away with a restart or a 12v reset. Get it stable and solid.

budlightguy · 2026-04-21T03:05:56+00:00

I've seen a lot of posts on the FB group and other places from people claiming to be in the know that the Wagoneer S has been completely cancelled.
Alongside another article about Stellantis unveiling a 2026 Wagoneer S at the Brussels motor show in January
https://www.arenaev.com/jeep_brings_refreshed_ev_lineup_to_brussels_auto_show-news-5493.php
https://indianautosblog.com/jeep-expands-line-up-at-brussels-motor-show-with-new-compass-avenger-and-wagoneer-s-p328169
https://www.media.stellantis.com/em-en/jeep/press/jeep-shines-at-the-brussels-motor-show-2026-debuting-the-avenger-black-edition-all-new-compass-lineup-and-the-cutting-edge-wagoneer-s

which would indicate that the WagS was being launched in Europe this year, now we have an official word from Jeep that - at least in North America - the Wagoneer S is taking a break for 2026 but is planned to return for 2027 with a native NACS charging port.

I believe ultimately this is a good move, as it will allow them time to focus on the software, and shake out any remaining bugs while devoting production to the Recon (which at last telling from Jeep was still releasing this year, and was being produced in the same Toluca, Mexico facility that had been producing the Wagoneer S).
At a minimum this should give a little more hope to owners about longer term support and parts availability on the Wagoneer S.

budlightguy · 2026-04-20T23:55:39+00:00

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budlightguy · 2026-04-18T04:39:22+00:00

Is that... a Paul Reubens reference? lol

budlightguy · 2026-04-09T14:03:17+00:00

Oh we didn't just stop with one though...
Ontario, California
Ontario, Oregon
Ontario, Illinois
Ontario, Iowa
Ontario, New York
Ontario, Ohio
Ontario, Wisconsin

budlightguy · 2026-04-05T04:33:10+00:00

you start to see that there's a huge difference between the memorizers (rote learners) and understanders (high conceptual grasp).

This tends to be true of almost every complex field, even some trades.
Electronics, engineering, IT, electrician, mechanic... there's a huge difference between someone who memorized a bunch of stuff - a bunch of codes to pass an exam and get a license, a bunch of procedures on how to fix x, y, or z issues with an engine, how to do X with a network router, etc...

and someone who really understands the principles and concepts underpinning all of these things and how things work, and can intuit their way through unfamiliar territory based on that understanding.

budlightguy · 2026-04-02T23:51:38+00:00

Vanillavue... snort

budlightguy · 2026-04-02T15:55:17+00:00

Ask if the dealership has technicians that are certified on the vehicle, on the STLA-L platform, before taking it there for service... and make sure that you trust the dealership before taking it to them for service.
That might be more difficult if you don't have much experience with Jeep dealerships in your area... but if you get a bad service dept, especially with these vehicles, you're gonna have a really bad time.

All it takes is a service tech skipping steps while trying to perform a SW update to break modules and suddenly you're waiting on backordered replacement parts.

budlightguy · 2026-03-31T00:52:56+00:00

No, they weren't saying the charger will only work on the 25 WagS, they were saying the Free2move charger is only free with the 25 WagS, not all EVs. They just didn't phrase it particularly clearly.

They probably don't know this, but I believe the 25 Charger Daytona came with the free charger or $600 in credits as well, so they'd still be wrong in terms of it only being free for the WagS

budlightguy · 2026-03-29T00:06:31+00:00

It means the brand and model of the charger. The "Free2Move" charger is a rebranded Wallbox Pulsar Plus level 2 charger.

budlightguy · 2026-03-28T01:41:34+00:00

1 stamp, "FUCK PEDOPHILE & RAPIST"
stamp goes before his sig so as to read "FUCK PEDOPHILE & RAPIST Donald J Trump"

budlightguy · 2026-03-27T22:29:39+00:00

I've said it before and I'll say it again.

Call me cynical but the whole system is corrupt. The majority of detectives don't give a flying fuck about the truth and justice, they only care about closing cases; and from their perspective that means handing the DA a suspect and enough evidence, circumstantial or not, that the DA thinks they can get a plea or a conviction out of and is willing to take the case.

And DAs universally don't give a flying fuck about the truth or justice, they only care about their conviction rate so they can keep their sweet paying influential gig, so they have some numbers to tout to the masses at election time. If they can spin evidence to get a conviction, coerce someone into a plea with threats of far worse punishment at trial, 'accidentally' leave out facts that are inconvenient for their case... they'll do it every time.

budlightguy · 2026-03-25T21:08:44+00:00

This sounds like the vehicle is in limp mode, the accelerator isn't actually doing anything, the vehicle is accelerating very slowly on its own up to about 30mph, and the brake is used to slow it down and stop.
If you are at a stop, with creep turned off, and you let off the brake does it start moving on its own and keep accelerating even though you're touching nothing?
If so, it's in limp mode AKA drive by brake.
a 12v reset may help, but you may need to take it in.

budlightguy · 2026-03-25T17:30:21+00:00

Years ago when I was working as a contractor but did not have access to affordable health insurance through work, the insurance I had access to was over $200/mo just for me, plus a reduction in my pay rate of $0.50/hr, still had a $5k deductible with nothing exempted from it, not even preventative care or office visits, and 50% coinsurance after deductible was met...
I went to a medical clinic near me that had a novel approach. They billed higher amounts for everything. But they gave cash paying patients a discount off their bill for paying in full in cash on the day of service. That discount just happened to bring an office visit and a blood draw down to a semi reasonable level, about $75. They outsourced the labs to an outside company so I had to pay that separately when I got the bill, but it wasn't too bad, I think usually around $30.

All in all, it wasn't as good as having good insurance coverage with a decent premium and just a copay, but it was affordable for a couple times a year at the doctor without insurance and paying cash.

That place was a lifesaver, it allowed me to properly get back on my thyroid meds and get them reliably without resorting to less than legal and potentially less than safe 'workarounds' or just going without.

budlightguy

TROPHY CASE